7 fraudsters sued

The Anti-Corruption Commission yesterday sued seven people including a former ward councillor of Dhaka City Corporation for impersonating the chairman and other officials of ACC and extorting Tk 34 lakh from people.
Akhter Hamid Bhuyan, a deputy director of ACC, filed three cases against the seven impersonators under Anti-Money Laundering Act.
Two cases were filed with Paltan Police Station in the capital while the other was filed with Joydevpur Police Station in Gazipur.
During preliminary investigation, the ACC team found that the gang had extorted the amount from government and non-government officials using three accounts of two banks.
The swindlers opened the accounts between June, 2011 and June 2012, Akhter Hamid told reporters at the ACC office yesterday.
Claiming to be the ACC's Chairman Ghulam Rahman or commissioner or investigation officers over the phone, the gang extorted these people, promising that they would not be implicated in cases, he said.
The impersonators are Ziaur Rahman, 27, of the city's Kadamtali, Mohammad Israfil, 24, of Malibagh, Enamul Huq, 32, of Khilgaon, Nisar Uddin Ahmed Kazol, former councillor of DCC ward-24.
Abu Hanif, 28, business executive of BRAC Bank's Gazipur sales centre, Abdul Hamid, 36, sales officer of the same centre, and former sales officer of the bank Omar Faruq Millat, 23, are the other gang members.
Ziaur Rahman, the ring leader, has been made accused in all three cases.
Ziaur had opened an account with the Joydevpur branch of BRAC Bank falsely identifying himself as Kazi Rakibul Ahmed, owner of a workshop-- Adib Engineering Works.
During the investigation, the ACC officials did not find the existence of the workshop at Khilgaon, said the ACC deputy director.
Bank official Hanif was the introducer of Ziaur. Hanif's colleague Hamid submitted a false report to the bank saying that he had visited the workshop.
Former BRAC Bank sales officer Millat also acted as an introducer of Ziaur when he had opened another account with the Bijoynagar branch of BRAC Bank identifying himself as Mohammad Babul.
Israfil opened an account with the Shantinagar branch of Dutch Bangla Bank using fake nationality certificate in the name of Ghulam Rahman. He obtained the certificate from the former DCC ward councillor Kazol.
ACC Deputy Director Hamid said the incidents of extortion came to light after the Rab arrested two members of the gang -- Ziaur Rahman and Israfil-- on July 6 in another case.
However, they were released on bail later.
Akhter Hamid also told reporters that the ACC will decide when the arrest warrant will be issued against the accused.
Contacted, Zeeshan Kingshuk Huq, head of corporate affairs and service quality department of BRAC Bank, told The Daily Star "The two officials are under close observation."
"We have also conducted an internal investigation into the incident in the last week of July. But the report is yet to be published," he said.
"We will take departmental action against them according to the findings," he added.